Early Voting Could Move From Downtown to Suburbs

The Hamilton County Board of Elections on
Jan. 27 split along party lines over whether the board should move its
offices and early voting from downtown to Mount Airy, where only one bus
line runs.

The two Democrats on the board dispute
the move. They claim it would make voting less accessible to voters who
rely on public transportation to make it to the ballot box.

Republicans on the board argue the move
would make voting more accessible to suburban voters and provide free
parking that’s scarcely available at the current downtown offices. They
call the move “good government” because it would consolidate some county
services at Mount Airy, where county officials plan to build a crime
lab as long as the Board of Elections moves with the coroner’s office
and provides the critical mass necessary to financially justify
renovations at a former hospital facility that would house the two
agencies.

Republicans cautioned their proposed
motion would keep early voting downtown through the 2016 presidential
elections. After that, the board’s offices would move, along with early
voting.

Ohio’s secretary of state — Republican
Jon Husted — normally breaks tie votes on county boards of elections.
The secretary of state’s office claims Husted will remain undecided on
the issue until he reviews documents from the Board of Elections
explaining both sides of the tie vote.

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But spokesperson Matt McClellan
says Husted would like to see the Board of Elections reach a compromise
before he is forced to intervene.

The board’s tie vote followed a
contentious back-and-forth between public speakers and board members
regarding the looming decision. Most speakers spoke against the move and
labeled it “voter suppression.” Some dissenters supported the move for
its fiscal prudence.

Alex Triantafilou, a Republican on the
Board of Elections, accused Democrats of “playing politics” with the
move. He claims Democrats just want to keep early voting in a Democratic
stronghold like downtown.

Democrats Tim Burke and Caleb Faux
countered that, along the same lines, the Mount Airy facility would
benefit Republicans by making early voting more accessible to
Republican-leaning suburban voters and less accessible to
Democrat-leaning urban voters.

State Rep. Alicia Reece, a local Democrat
who spoke at the meeting, rebuked accusations of partisan politics and
reiterated an argument she made to reporters on Jan. 23.

“The reality is the Board of Elections at
its current location has declared both Democrat and Republican winners
of elections,” Reece previously said. “I think the focus is to just make
sure that we have a facility that everyone can have access to, whether
you’re driving or whether you’re on the bus.”

But Hamilton County Commissioner Greg Hartmann, a Republican, told CityBeat
the offer is not enough to satisfy the county’s occupancy needs at
Mount Airy, even if the city moves some police services, such as SWAT
operations, to the Mount Airy facility to help fill out the
500,000-square-foot building.

“Without the Board of Elections coming
with the crime lab, that’s not enough occupancy,” Hartmann said. “There
would be some good potential co-location opportunities with the city (at
the Mount Airy facility), but not enough to take up 400,000 square
feet.”

County officials expect the crime lab to
take up 100,000 square feet at the Mount Airy facility, and the Board of
Elections would occupy another 100,000 square feet. So the county needs
to fill 300,000 square feet to fully utilize the Mount Airy facility,
even if the Board of Elections moves.